Verizon Pulls The Plug On Go90 Video App

Verizon is pulling the plug on its Go90 mobile video app and shifting distribution of its shows to Oath’s well-established digital media brands, which include Yahoo and the Huffington Post.

Oath CEO Tim Armstrong telegraphed that Go90’s days were numbered when he talked about transforming it from a standalone service into a content library, whose shows could be distributed broadly across Verizon’s media properties.

“The brand will remain, but I don’t know for how long,” Armstrong said in an interview last February at the Code Media conference in Huntington Beach.

That day has officially come.

“Go90 will be discontinued,” the company said in a statement. “Verizon will focus on building its digital-first brands at scale in sports, finance, news and entertainment.”

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Verizon launched Go90 in late 2015 to capture millennial viewers, and offered content from partners including AwesomenessTV and Vice. It struck exclusive deals with the National Football League and National Basketball League and even garnered a slew of major award nominations.

Still, the wireless carrier acknowledged that it struggled to find audiences until it began distributing content across its Oath platform. Over the last six months, the total audience for Go90’s programming grew exponentially — garnering more than 17 million viewers a month.

Expect to see Go90’s sports content distributed on Yahoo! Sports; and other content available across Oath properties that include AOL, Ryot, Tumblr and Engadget.